Frank commentary from an unretired call girl

Rescued To Death

This essay first appeared in Cliterati on April 27th; I have modified it slightly to fit the format of this blog.

Though it’s wrapped in layers of feminist and “anti-crime” rhetoric, the truth is that the war on whores (whether in its pure form or disguised as concern over “sex trafficking”) is “deeply rooted in Protestant Christianity’s obsessionwith ‘pure and pious womanhood’, and even when there is no Christian group involved in a prohibitionist scheme the same themes of sin and degradation echo through their rhetoric, even if translated for a non-Christian audience.” One of the most telling examples of this can be seen in prohibitionist adoption of the “hate the sin, love the sinner” doctrine: we are repeatedly told that prohibitionists only want to help sex workers, to “rescue” us from “objectification” and “degradation”, to “save” us from our own choices. As Furry Girl put it:

They support us! They acknowledge our choices! They see us as real people! And they can’t wait to show their loving solidarity with us by putting us in jail, taking away our income, and making our jobs as dangerous as possible…They see nothing odd about trying to have it both ways: being the heroic would-be saviors of the fallen with one hand, and with the other, the cause of the fallen’s increasing unhappiness. They’re the abusive boyfriend who brings you flowers after giving you a black eye…

I’ve written before on the necessity of ceding not one inch of ground to the prohibitionists, and this is a perfect example of what I mean by that; by allowing them to pretend that they care about us when their every behavior screams the exact opposite, we allow them to dictate the narrative and define the rules. It is absolutely vital that prohibitionism be called what it is: a jihad against sex workers. Prohibitionists seek nothing less than the total annihilation of our kind; if we were a race, the term would be “genocide”. Nobody would accept the input of avowed Nazis on matters pertaining to Jews, nor to KKK members on issues involving black people, but until prohibitionists are widely recognized as the sex worker equivalent to those hate groups, they will continue to be given voices in the public debates about our lives and livelihoods on the grounds that they are “concerned” about us. Here’s an example from Scotland:

A prostitute savagely beaten and raped…says a police clampdown is putting more working girls at risk. Sarah…was working in a flat in Perth when serial rapist Graeme Bell attacked her after arriving for a pre–booked appointment…Sarah…said she feels angry that girls working in a flat with others risk being accused of running brothels…the situation is more dangerous since Edinburgh Council stripped the city’s saunas of their licences…she said…“I do not understand why Edinburgh has scrapped its tolerance”…

…[Under a new] California…bill, anyone convicted of [agreeing to pay for sex]…would be required to receive jail time regardless of whether the Court believed [it]…appropriate…the bill calls for convicted customers to spend “not less than 48 hours of continuous confinement [in the county jail], nor more than six months” on a first offense, as well as a fine of one thousand dollars [half of which goes into police coffers]…The bill doesn’t even try to explain why…the 48 hour time frame is necessary or how it was arrived at…the bill gives law enforcement a direct and inappropriate incentive to entrap people since they would get at least $500 a head…for every person convicted…This [may] deter those customers who are otherwise law-abiding…but not…a violent felon…Having more committed criminals…in the client pool…only makes sense if one believes that the best way to “protect” sex workers is to make their jobs as dangerous as possible…

…Project ROSE strikes me as a ghastly cross between a Crisis Pregnancy Center and a 12 step program, with police and prosecutorial force behind it…They are really trying to claim that handcuffing people and taking them to a location where they are not permitted to leave is not an arrest? They are really trying to claim that being “assessed for eligibility” by cops is not an interrogation? They are seriously acting like…suspects being required to make incriminating statements about themselves and a deal with prosecutors to avoid being charged and put in jail is somehow fine and that all the above can happen without the suspects being advised that they can talk to a lawyer first? Project ROSE [claims that women]…are “never arrested” by snatching them off the street and handcuffing them for “manifesting prostitution” or whatever…if this is such a helpful program, [what’s wrong] with simply allowing…suspects caught up in it to…talk to a lawyer of their own choosing about whether or not this is the right thing for them before they agree to it?…Why are you so afraid of diligent defense attorneys snooping around your program, Project ROSE?…

People who truly want to help others don’t subject them to arrest and coercion; they don’t evict them from their homes or workplaces, don’t try to steal their income and don’t put bounties on the heads of those who provide that income. Prohibitionists want to “save” sex workers like the Inquisition wanted to “save” heretics: preventing them from “sinning” by any means necessary, even if it means they end up tortured, locked in dungeons or dead.

I suppose this is sort of piggybacking on cspscholfield’s question, but I’ve noticed a certain amount of…disdain?…for the ACLU in the twitter feed here. Just to satisfy my curiosity, is it that they have not devoted sufficient time to pro-sex worker causes compared to the other causes they trumpet, or is it something more?

They haven’t devoted ANY time. They devote huge amounts of money & lawyer-hours to promoting stupid social engineering garbage like forcing military women into combat, banning single-sex schools and promoting the idea that women should be paid more for less work because we have vaginas, yet pretend not to notice while new, horrific & rights-destroying laws are made against sex workers & clients. If the ACLU had started fighting these laws ten years ago when they first started appearing, the hysteria would never have reached the level it has.

I don’t know a lot about UKIP. Supposed to be “Libertarian” but of course – Libertarians are like fundamentalist Christians – if you don’t believe the whole gospel then the congregation says you ain’t one. But from what I’ve been able to garner – they’re for decriminalizing drugs and prostitution?

I looked at their platform and they look like MY kind of Libertarians! Tribal mentality and all. Of course – I see a lot of allegations they’re “fascists” and “racists” – but those charges have zero effect on my opinions this day and age – they’ve been so overused. I’ve been called both myself. :)

Big time Euroskeptics and are expected to pick up big gains in the EU parliament this weekend. Maybe 27% of the seats.

Tories are shitting their pants it seems. Cameron “channeled” his inner Barack Obama to blame the people in London who are in charge of the government – whoever they are … oh wait … isn’t CAMERON one of them? Heh … yeah.

Libertarianism isn’t a concept easily applicable to UK politics. UKIP are a protest party, an “anti” party, and very much a one man show. But they (he) does strike a chord with many of the electorate. Only the local government results are available; UKIP have very few councillors, and control no areas. The EU parliamentary results won’t be available until late Sunday/Monday.

UKIP got the highest number of MEPs following the EU parliamentary elections’ results (24, against 20 for Labour and 19 for the Tories). But don’t get fooled by their apparent cheerfulness, there’s no substance whatsoever beyond the “Out of the EU” motto, just the same good old finger pointing about those nasty Eastern Europeans coming to steal British workers’ jobs… They’re good to let the steam out of those left behind by the current state of the EU (unless you’re East European, that is) but were they to ever get into power, they’d not have a clue what to do beyond blaming always the same scapegoats (and we know where that kind of thinking leads)…

Funnily, in London, where there is the highest amount of Polish and Romanian workers “stealing jobs”, UKIP lagged well behind their national score, being beaten by Labour, the Tories, and even the Greens. Unfortunately, since Labour won there, this means that the deplorable Mary Honeyball has been re-elected. Even there the UKIP didn’t help much since they don’t bother turning up for the votes at the EU parliament (it was left to the Greens and to the Lib Dems to fight against the “Swedish Model” proposition earlier this year).

So they may look really laid back on paper, but they’re not really coming with any solution. Which is a shame, since a proper alternative to the current EU setting is badly needed, hopefully without the usual nationalistic / jingoistic rhetoric.

OK, norn iron is the only UK area that hasn’t elected a UKIP MEP. But then, our politics are local.

UKIP is an “anti” party; if they are “for” anything, its well hidden. The crap about the Romainans taking jobs from the Brits is just garbage. The immigrants take jobs the Brits won’t do, things that are beneath them. So, the UK relies on a base of very poorly paid immigrants to clean and polish; and, what is so awful, is that they do it cheerfully, and far better than the Brits ever would.

Both of the really libertarian lawsuit mills (IJ and pacificlegal.org) spend most of their resources on property rights cases. If they’re likely to intervene in any recent case involving whores, it would be the “Choke Point” operation (and I hope it happens, but I’m not optimistic).

The ironic thing about enforcement campaigns like these is that they’re going to force their opponents to create, from scratch, exactly what they claim to be wiping out (for instance, money-hiding apparatus good enough that tax collection will become impossible). I hope I live to see the results, because if anybody takes forever to learn from their mistakes, it’s bureaucrats.

Krulac, the reason UKIP are picking up votes is because they show concern over the issues that bother the ordinary voters – unlike the main parties whose main concerns seem to be either getting into power or keeping in power.

I voted for UKIP but as I live in a south-east London borough this is likely only to be a protest vote. Those who bother to vote will vote the same way each year – even for a wheelie-bin if it has ‘their’ candidate’s name on it.

Maggie on Twitter

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